Suchergebnisse

The US Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for planning and building much of the nation's flood management infrastructure. In the past, the Corps used an economic evaluation system that favored projects in wealthier areas, that now appears to be changing. We asked the Corps' Dr. Tessa Beach to tell us more.

The sudden deluge in San Diego last week has left some of that city's communities reeling. But what actually caused the epic flooding—and could it have been avoided? We ask the experts.

It's high time for Congress to end a program that routinely goes into debt providing subsidies to wealthy people living in high-risk areas.

A review of races this fall in Bossier Parish government shows
an expected electoral quietude among executives, but perhaps having the chickens
coming home to roost for many of the incumbents on the Police Jury.

Parishes have four elective executive offices up
for grabs, but there will be next to no drama in Bossier for these. The
incumbent assessor, clerk of court, and coroner drew no challengers, letting
all three cruise to reelection. Republican Sheriff Julian Whittington did
receive a challenge from political unknown Republican Chris Green, a former
deputy who would seem to have little chance for the upset.

The Jury contests are another matter. In 2019, eight
incumbents walked back into office, with District 2 Republican Glenn Benton
being the only incumbent to receive a challenge. This time he avoided one,
along with Democrat Jimmy Cochran (unchallenged in District 7 since 1999) and
Republicans Doug Rimmer (unchallenged since 2011 in District 8) and Tom Salzer
(never challenged since being the only one to qualify for a special election for
District 11 in 2017) while the other eight incumbents all filed for reelection
against opposition.

Make that seven. District 10's independent Jerome Darby,
the longest serving juror in the state in his tenth term, shortly after
qualifying withdrew, perhaps because there still will be a Darby on the ballot.
Democrat former School Board member Julian Darby, his younger brother, signed up,
along with a pair retired military veterans Democrats James Carley and Mary
Giles. The Darby family machine, whose Samm Darby as a Democrat represents the
district Julian once did, despite having Jerome facing just one election in
2007 since 1987, should get cranked up enough to keep the seat in the family.

As for the other seven incumbents with a fight on
their hands – the most since 1987 – from the rhetoric of the challengers it seems
that has come at the expense of Jury actions over the past several years. Since
2016 jurors have served illegally on the parish Library
Board of Control, currently Benton, Republican Bob Brotherton from District
1, Democrat Charles Gray from District 9, Republican Julianna Parks from
District 5, and Rimmer. Jurors also tolerated inserting
themselves into another dual officeholding controversy when their appointee
to the Cypress Black Bayou Recreation and Water Conservation District Robert
Berry also became its executive director, which changed only last month when
jurors didn't reappoint Berry. Even so, three jurors – Gray, Parks, and District
12 Republican Mac Plummer – didn't go along with that.

Incumbent jurors also have courted
controversy with their management of its Consolidated Waterworks/Sewerage
District #1, its growing attempt to provide centralized water and sewerage provision
to areas outside of municipalities. Deliberate lowballing on rates that
taxpayers had to subsidize that may mushroom costs to all in the future and
problems in absorbing new systems have raised the ire of some parish residents.

The Jury and parish government also have done
little to make their dealings transparent, in contrast to every other major northwest
Louisiana local government. Meetings are narrowcast on a hard-to-view and
nearly impossible-to-hear Facebook Live channel, years
after a statement that it would move to a professional setup (last year's
meeting dealing with the budget wasn't delivered or archived at all). Online agendas
carry the barest of information so citizens prior to meetings have no idea about
the items being discussed and voted upon. Meeting minutes habitually are posted
well past their meeting dates.

Perhaps worst of all, incumbent jurors have stuck
by Parish Administrator Butch Ford as he continues apparently to violate state
law that says a parish chief executive must be a registered voter in that
parish, which means he must have his primary residence that would qualify for a
homestead exemption in that parish. Over the past 19 months – the first 10 of which
jurors ignored Ford's full-time residence at a Caddo Parish property with a homestead
exemption and his registration to vote in Caddo, a property he still maintains –
Ford has been unable to establish with certainty that he qualifies to register
to vote in Bossier Parish, yet the Jury reappointed him without dissent earlier
this year (and originally hired him the year before without a job search).

This pattern of obscurantism, questionable fiscal administration
of the water utility, and lawlessness likely provoked many, if not all challengers.
The most vulnerable perhaps is Brotherton, whose health problems have prevented
him from attending most Jury meetings this year and will make it difficult for
him to campaign. In a solidly Republican district, Republican small businessman
Mike Farris has a distinct chance to replace him, much likelier to do so than the
two Democrats running, retiree Mary Odom and trucking executive Andre Wilson.

District 3 Republican Philip Rodgers, who in 2019 ran on
addressing problems with the Berry-run CBB, even as Berry's
ouster – which also means by state law he must give up his executive
directorship – has occurred, created some more problems for himself when in the
process of criticizing District actions at one of its recent meetings opened
himself to charges that he sought and obtained 
with its Board's knowledge favorable treatment from Berry. He is opposed
by Republican Andy Modica, a District critic, parish constable, and recent
applicant to fill a vacant School Board slot, who complained at the meeting where
the Jury didn't reappoint Berry – at which Rodgers' campaign supporter Rodney
Madden received the nod – that the fix was in against him and other applicants
for the post that went to Madden. It wouldn't be hard for Modica to campaign
contrasting the sweet deals political insiders get with the reception others encounter.

If that seems at all vengeful, forget it when
compared to the fate suffered by District 6 Republican Chris Marsiglia. He drew
as a challenger none other than Berry, running as a Republican. There's no fury
like a scorned former CBB executive director/ex-commissioner, who lost both gigs
because the Jury didn't reappoint him – with good reason, of course, since the judiciary
declared a situation like his in violation of the law and the District was footing
legal bills in his defense equivalent to about an eighth of its total revenues
in a losing cause.

Marsiglia was one of three first-time electees
(although he had run for a seat unsuccessfully years ago) who faced opposition
then and now. District 4 Republican John Ed Jorden (who also ran years ago) turned
out to be another, and worse off since in 2019 he had just opponent and now
faces two. While district demographics suggest Democrat Donald Stephens can't
win, he might make a runoff against either Jorden or Republican appraiser Jack Harvill.

And one of the most polarizing figures on the
Jury, Parks who won a special election for the post in 2021, faces perhaps the
most quality challenger running, Republican Barry Butler who formerly served in
her spot from 2008-12. In his term, Butler distinguished himself by challenging
orthodoxy and refusing to get along and go along as so often happens among
jurors, often serving as the only voice willing to take up topics and bring out
information that didn't portray parish policies in only rosy hues. Parks, who through
her husband Republican Bossier City Judge Santi Parks has a considerable parish
political establishment network to fall back upon, can bring a lot of resources
to bear to retain office, but Butler, who suffered defeat through the efforts
of that network, has the capacity to knock her off.

At the other end of the parish, after three
straight elections without an opponent, Plummer will be forced to work for his
job against Republican small businessman Keith
Sutton. Also a critic of business-as-usual on the Jury with a desire for
greater Jury fiscal responsibility, transparency, and term limits, he hosts a
podcast with former School Board member Shane Cheatham that in part discussed
politics of the day.

Republicans dropped the ball in the Darbys' District
10, which has been a plurality white district that has 41 percent black registration
that should give them a decent chance to win with relatively fewer black Democrats,
by not running a candidate there. They also blew it in 2019 in District 9, then
with a narrow white plurality, when the only Republican who qualified subsequently
was disqualified over not being a district resident, handing the victory to
Gray. Since then, the district has moved to a black plurality of around 47 percent.

This time, the GOP challenger should stick, and a
quality one at that – former Bossier City chief administrative officer Pam
Glorioso, who might well have run for and possibly won the mayoralty had her
boss Lo Walker not ran for a fifth term. She doesn't have the reform potential
that challengers in other districts have (in Berry's case, perhaps more out of
spite), having been a longtime part of the parish political establishment, and
she may not have the numbers on her side to knock off Gray in a district that
has become more secure for him.

If everything goes right for reformers, known quantities
such as Farris, Modica, Butler, and Sutton could form a solid bloc on the Jury.
If Berry and Glorioso also make it, matters become more interesting still.
Throw in Harvill and a Darby opponent and some real change could be on the way.
Even if turnover ends up minimal, clearly the challengers who have stepped up means
there's more of the grassroots upset at sitting jurors that there has been for
decades.

Move over, floods—there's a new natural disaster in town: debris flows. We know that debris flows can be even more destructive than floods, but what are they and why do they happen? We speak with expert Jimmy Guilinger to learn more.

Julie Foley, Director of Flood Risk Strategy & National Adaptation Around 1 in 6 people are at risk of flooding in England. Our changing climate means that more homes will be at risk in the future. We have traditionally focussed …

Julie Foley, Director of Flood Risk Strategy & National Adaptation It is essential that we make homes and businesses resilient to flooding and when the worst happens build back better to limit any future damages and speed up recovery. Property …

2022 saw a rise in Republican-leaning pollsters as Election Day approached, which may have biased some aggregate forecasts.

The National Flood Insurance Program is one of the programs caught in the wash as the federal government staggers from one short-term budgeting plan to the next. As the the website of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) points out: “Congress must periodically renew the NFIP's statutory authority to operate. On Sept. 30, 2023, the … Continue reading National Flood Insurance Program: One More Short-Term Deadline
The post National Flood Insurance Program: One More Short-Term Deadline first appeared on Conversable Economist.

The Environment Agency is responsible for carrying out maintenance work on its assets to ensure they will perform as they should during a flood.

Field team operatives and contractors use various tools and methods to carry out seasonal vegetation management on sections of watercourse that are within a flood alleviation scheme. This work is carried out to aid the conveyance of floodwater during periods of high flows. This allows the floodwater to pass through the scheme as freely as possible reducing the likelihood of a blockage and reducing the flood risk.

As California faces flooding this year, PPIC Water Policy Center director Ellen Hanak spoke with Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara about how to better protect the state's residents from flood risk—which is growing in our changing climate.

Dozens of people had been killed in different parts of Pakistan due to rain and floods in the last week of June there are alerts of more rain in July.

The collapse of Derna's two dams was as much a man-made disaster as it was a climate catastrophe, but not all of those responsible will be held to account.

California was surprised by heavy coastal flooding back in December, with communities from Ventura northwards experiencing flooding in low-lying shoreline areas. Is this a harbinger of things to come as sea levels rise?

As I noted on the recent 20th anniversary, the Iraq war, and more particularly the intelligence failure in relation to Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, initiated an inquiry the following year, conducted for the Australian ...